Tiggly Tales: Word Building & Storytelling Kids Game

Teacher Overview

An app that engages the user through discovery, storytelling and fun helping them to learn to spell.

Teacher Review

This is a great app for helping young children to learn simple CVC words yet it does it in such a way that it also just a great app to play around with. The graphics are like something out of a top game mixed with the kind of illustrations that you would likely find in an award winning picture book for young children. This is complimented by the sound effects that add to the gameplay rather than distract and voice over that helps the user with further information on the correction pronunciation of the words.

The premise behind the app is to help young children learn CVC words through discovery and play and also has enhancements in it that make the experience of playing the app one that will have the user return regularly to the app. One of these enhancements is the addition of having smart vowel ‘toys’ (Tiggly words) that the user can place onto the ipad instead of clicking on the letters they wish to try. By doing this the developer has added a completely different level of gameplay and also curriculum relevance as the user has to physically select and place the right vowel onto the screen to succeed in the app. However, the user can still access the features of the app even without these additional ‘toys’ as they can select on the screen the vowels they wish to choose.

The main part of the app is the game in which the user has to either use the toy vowels (or click on the vowels that appear on the screen) to complete a simple 3 letter CVC word. Once the word appears, if it has a meaning, it will be read out and a suitable picture representing the word will appear on the page, however, if the user chooses a vowel that makes a meaningless word a small spring will appear on the screen and springs out the letter off the page, thus allowing the user to see that they have made a meaningless word. The illustrations are again a really strong element of the app having both a lot of quality and humour to them. The user can also click on and interact with the pictures which is another one of the additional features that enhances the gameplay within the app. If, however, the user choose a vowel that isn’t correct a small spring will appear on the screen and shoot the letter of the page, thus allowing the user to see that they have made an incorrect selection.

Once the user has correctly selected all the words for the consonants that appear on the screen they can select for those consonants to be replaced and for new ones to appear. This gives the user an opportunity to create more words and to find more pictures. This is an important point to make, as probably the best additional feature requires the user to get as many pictures, and so words, as possible. This is because, available from the menu in the top left hand corner of the screen is an option to either take a screen shot of their screen with all the animals on or to create a video where the user has the ability to tell a story (with their own recorded voice) whilst also moving the pictures on the screen. The pictures also have the ability to interact with each other and it is by discovery that the user can find out exactly how they all interact with each other. For instance the cab will only pick up the pug and you can have a lot of fun trying to catch the fly in the bag whilst a pirate appears trying to chase his peg leg once you have selected this word. Once a picture or video has been created the user can view these at any time.

Tiggly has a number of similar apps on the market and they clearly have a lot of educational and game-playing experience behind them. Their website can easily be accessed from the app as well as some instructional videos to help aid the gameplay and make sure that no part of the apps features are not missed by the user. All the options are ‘hidden’ behind an adult accessible menu from the front page of the app. Alongside these are a couple of other options such as adding or taking away the sounds and voice over in the app. You can also rate the app or contact the developer from this menu. The only thing that I think is missing is a simple instruction manual for the user. Although there is a link to the video a manual accessible within the app could also be beneficial.

Overall this is a very well thought out app that encourages young children to engage in learning through discovery and play and links well to all the other apps that the developer already has. There are a number of excellent additional features that not only enhances the app but makes it something very special to play.

Safeguarding

Screenshots

Developer Description

Calling all thinkers and tinkers! Create a world as big as your imagination, and bring word building and storytelling to life! You are free to use any vowel you would like in a series of consonant, vowel, consonant (CVC) word combinations, to create some of the silliest characters and actions you can imagine. Make a bug in a bog and catch it with a big bag! If the word has a meaning, it comes to life on the screen. Keep building your story, and then simply record & share it with friends and family.

From the team at Tiggly – the creators of the beloved award winning Tiggly Chef and many other apps.

BUILD

Build a world as big as your imagination

Build more than 40 unique CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words

Replace vowels in words to create new ones

DISCOVER

Laugh with many many silly surprises as the animals interact

Discover when the pigs fall in love, hens laying eggs, pugs catching a cab, cubs chasing the pigs, and catching bugs in a big bag…

CAPTURE

Come up with endless stories

Capture your voice telling and animating your stories

Share your creations with family, friends, and loved ones

(enhanced by Tiggly Words)
Kids love Tiggly Tales as a standalone learning app, but better yet they can stretch their learning with Tiggly Words connected toys that interact with your tablet (sold separately)

Tiggly Words is a revolutionary early literacy learning toy for 4 to 8 year old children.

Tiggly Words are five vowel toys, safe for your child and your tablet, that physically interact with three parent- and educator-approved learning apps for the iPad – including Tiggly Submarine, Tiggly Tales, and Tiggly Doctor.

No Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or batteries needed - just touch the screen with toys and apps react in real-time.

With your purchase of Tiggly Words you will receive $2.99 discount on Tiggly Words toys. Make sure to get yours with Apple Pay inside the app!

ABOUT TIGGLY
The Tiggly team is made up of PhDs, MBAs, parents, grandparents, uncles, and aunts who want to help parents introduce their children to the digital world in an easy yet educational way. Our educator-designed tablet toys interact with our learning apps because we believe there is a powerful learning opportunity in the combination of physical and digital play. Children explore mathematical concepts and numerical relations by manipulating physical number blocks while playing in wonderful digital worlds that stretch their imagination and spark their creativity. Our team collaborates with Grammy and Emmy-award winning creative talent to craft products that parents and children both love. Tiggly products are available in 20+ countries and in more than 300 Apple Store locations across four continents, in addition to specialty retailers worldwide.